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1 SAMUEL 6

PARAGRAPH DIVISIONS OF MODERN TRANSLATIONS

READING CYCLE THREE (see "Bible Interpretation Seminar")

FOLLOWING THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S INTENT AT THE PARAGRAPH LEVEL

This is a study guide commentary, which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

Read the chapter in one sitting. Identify the subjects. Compare your subject divisions with the five translations above. Paragraphing is not inspired, but it is the key to following the original author's intent, which is the heart of interpretation. Every paragraph has one and only one subject.

1. First paragraph
2. Second paragraph
3. Etc.

WORD AND PHRASE STUDY

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 6:1-9
  ¹Now the ark of the Lord had been in the country of the Philistines seven months. ²And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, "What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we shall send it to its place." ³They said, "If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty; but you shall surely return to Him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed and it will be known to you why His hand is not removed from you." ⁴Then they said, "What shall be the guilt offering which we shall return to Him?" And they said, "Five golden tumors and five golden mice according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for one plague was on all of you and on your lords. ⁵So you shall make likenesses of your tumors and likenesses of your mice that ravage the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps He will ease His hand from you, your gods, and your land. ⁶Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He had severely dealt with them, did they not allow the people to go, and they departed? ⁷Now therefore, take and prepare a new cart and two milch cows on which there has never been a yoke; and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves home, away from them. ⁸Take the ark of the Lord and place it on the cart; and put the articles of gold which you return to Him as a guilt offering in a box by its side. Then send it away that it may go. ⁹Watch, if it goes up by the way of its own territory to Beth-shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then we will know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance."

6:1 "the ark" See SPECIAL TOPIC: THE ARK OF THE COVENANT.

▣ "Lord" See SPECIAL TOPIC: NAMES FOR DEITY, D.

▣ "seven" See SPECIAL TOPIC: SYMBOLIC NUMBERS IN SCRIPTURE, #4.

6:2 "the diviners" See note at Deut. 18:14 and SPECIAL TOPIC: DIVINER.

6:3 "do not send it empty" This is the Piel IMPERFECT (BDB 1018, KB 1511) used in a JUSSIVE sense. A sacrificial gift was required by custom.

▣ "you shall surely return to Him" This is an INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE and an IMPERFECT VERB from the same root (BDB 996, KB 1427), which denotes intensity.

▣ "a guilt offering" See SPECIAL TOPIC: GUILT OFFERING.

6:4 The fact that the offering was five golden hemorrhoids and five golden mice supports the LXX addition in 1 Sam. 5:6; see note there.

6:5 What a shocking verse. The pagan Philistines who won the battle and captured the ark, now must give glory to Israel's God in hopes that He will

1. ease His hand (v. 5)
   1. from you
   2. from your gods
   3. from your land
2. heal them (v. 3)

▣ "you shall give glory to God" This would mean

1. recognize Israel's God's greatness and power
2. the UBS Handbook, p. 136, suggests in this sacrificial context "glory" means
   1. a tribute
   2. a gift of honor (i.e., Jer. 13:16)

6:6 Obviously the Philistines had heard about what happened to the Egyptians (cf. Josh. 2:9-11).

▣ "harden your hearts" See full note at Exod. 4:21.

6:7 The Philistines are doing everything they know to placate YHWH.

1. golden offerings
2. new cart
3. young untrained cows

6:8 "in a box by its side" Notice they were afraid to open the box (unlike the Israelites of Beth-shemesh, cf. v. 19).

The NOUN "box" (BDB 919, KB 84) is found only in vv. 8,11,15 in all the OT.

1. BDB suggests "box" or "chest."
2. KB suggests "saddlebag" from Arabic root.
3. Josephus, Antiq. 6.1.2, calls it a "bag."

▣ "Then send it away that it may go" The superstition of the Philistines is obvious. These cows should have turned back to their calves (cf. v. 7) but they did not. This was a sign (v. 9) to the Philistines.

6:9 "Beth-shemesh" This name means "house/temple of the Sun" (BDB 112). There are four towns in the OT that go by this pagan-oriented name.

1. city in Naphtali ‒ Josh. 19:38; Jdgs. 1:33
2. city in Issachar ‒ Josh. 19:22
3. city in SW Judah ‒ Josh. 15:10; 1 Sam. 6:9,12,13,14,19,20; 1 Kgs. 4:9; 2 Kgs. 14:13; it was a Levitical city (cf. v. 15)
4. city in Egypt ‒ Jer. 43:13

In this context #3 is meant.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 6:10-12
  ¹⁰Then the men did so, and took two milch cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. ¹¹They put the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the box with the golden mice and the likenesses of their tumors. ¹²And the cows took the straight way in the direction of Beth-shemesh; they went along the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. And the lords of the Philistines followed them to the border of Beth-shemesh.

6:12 "did not turn aside to the right or to the left" This Semitic idiom is usually used of the Israelites obeying fully YHWH's directions to them (i.e., the Mosaic Law, cf. Num. 20:17; Deut. 2:27; 5:32; 17:11; Josh. 1:7). Only here is it used of YHWH's guidance and direction of animals.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 6:13-16
  ¹³Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they raised their eyes and saw the ark and were glad to see it. ¹⁴The cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stood there where there was a large stone; and they split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹⁵The Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the box that was with it, in which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone; and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices that day to the Lord. ¹⁶When the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned to Ekron that day.

6:15 "The Levites took down the ark" Only Levites were meant to handle and transport the ark (cf. Num. 4:15; Deut. 10:8; 31:9,25,26; 1 Chr. 15:2).

▣ "burnt offerings" See SPECIAL TOPIC: BURNT OFFERINGS.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 6:17-18
  ¹⁷These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned for a guilt offering to the Lord: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron; ¹⁸and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fortified cities and of country villages. The large stone on which they set the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite.

6:17 "guilt offering" See SPECIAL TOPIC: GUILT OFFERINGS.

The MT has "the greater Abel" (BDB 5), which means

1. meadow ‒ BDB 5 (אבל)
2. stone ‒ BDB 6 (אבן)
3. place name "Abel" of unknown location
4. "Abel," the root means "mourning" (BDB 5), so maybe it refers to the village mourning over the 70 people YHWH struck
5. Josephus, Antiq. 6.1.3, "a certain rock which was in the plain"

The context supports #2 and #5, which became a memorial stone of this major historical event (i.e., the return of the ark).

The MT has a PREPOSITION (BDB 723 II), which can denote a future time. Some translations see it as

1. a reference to a geographical place where the large stone was located
2. a reference to the future witness (i.e., linked to "to this day") of the large stone and the sacrifices made there because of the return of the ark of Israel

The UBS Text Project, p. 100, gives option #1 an "A" rating.

▣ "to this day" This phrase implies a later period. It could refer to

1. later in Samuel's life
2. later in the United Monarchy
3. later revisions, done by Ezra, in the post-exilic period

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 6:19-21
  ¹⁹He struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. He struck down of all the people, 50,070 men, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter. ²⁰The men of Beth-shemesh said, "Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall He go up from us?" ²¹So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, "The Philistines have brought back the ark of the Lord; come down and take it up to you."

6:19 YHWH's holiness must not be compromised even by Israelites. The ark was sacred (cf. v. 20). It was to be covered when transported (i.e., Num. 4:5-6) and surely never opened by non-Levites!

▣ "struck down" This VERB (BDB 645, KB 697, Hiphil IMPERFECT with waw) appears in this verse three times.

The MT has "seventy men, fifty thousand men." The UBS Text Project, p. 161, gives this large number a "C" rating (considerable doubt). This doubt is not based on Hebrew MSS evidence but the unusually large and very specific number of men in a small town (i.e., Beth-shemesh). Possibly the problem is

1. the meaning of the word "thousand"
2. an early MS error; see Gleason Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, p. 169

SPECIAL TOPIC: THOUSAND (eleph)

SPECIAL TOPIC: TEXTUAL CRITICISM

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

This is a study guide commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought-provoking, not definitive.

1. How do "diviners" foretell the future?
2. Why do the Philistines feel they must give YHWH a guilt offering? What did they give and why?
3. What did the men of Beth-shemesh do to offend YHWH?
4. How many of them were judged?

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